Curve Annual Review 2017/18 by Curve Theatre

2 PHOTOGRAPHY FRONT COVER: Pink Sari Revolution – Pamela Raith THIS PAGE: Sunset Boulevard – Manuel Harlan OPPOSITE PAGE: Curve 10th Birthday Gala – Pamela Raith

3 Welcome 4 A Year in Performance Made at Curve 6 A Year in Performance Visiting Productions

8 Curve On Tour 12 Artist Development at Curve 14 Community Engagement at Curve 16 Learning Curve 20 Fundraising & Partnerships at Curve

22 Curve Facts & Figures 24 Curve Numbers 26 Curve Supporters 27 Curve People

s I welcome you to Curve’s annual report for 2017/18 I do so with the mild regret that these reports – by their very nature – always have to look back. At Curve, while we mark and celebrate our achievements, the team (I’m pleased to say) is pre-disposed to looking forward. ‘What can we do next?’ are the words you’re most likely hear as you walk this remarkable theatre. Last year was a classic demonstration of the essence of Curve. There was not only the variety which our audiences have come to expect but within that variety a scale and ambition which I hope we have established as hallmarks of this operation. In our larger theatre we presented, as ever, the winning combination of huge, acclaimed touring shows together with ambitious ‘Made at Curve’ productions. Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s Miss Saigon and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda the Musical were glittering highlights which we were delighted to host. From the ‘home team’ and directed by our Artistic Director Nikolai Foster we had a new and beautifully orchestrated production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s imposing Sunset Boulevard – which then went on tour around the UK – and at Christmas, Leslie Bricusse’s brilliantly evocative Scrooge the Musical. And remember those four shows were but a fraction of the work we presented in the 900 seat auditorium but they stand out as prime examples of the scale and ambition of which I write. They were also immensely popular with audiences here in Leicester – and we make no apology for that at all. We set ourselves multiple targets with the work we present but one of them is about entertaining and developing the widest audience possible and providing them with thrilling and rewarding nights at the theatre. But our ambitions are wide. Last year you’d only have had to look into any one of our brochures to see the evidence of new and demanding work, ranging across genres and pushing boundaries. Ravi Shankar’s opera Sukanya brought a fresh audience to the theatre and the extraordinary and challenging Pink Sari Revolution was a new and timely drama which provoked and discomfited in equal degree. Delivering that mix of high entertainment and new work clearly finds favour with our customers. Last year we sold more than 900,000 tickets for work produced and programmed at Curve and for our coproduced work on tour. In turn those sales contributed to an overall revenue exceeding £10.6m, the majority of which – 64% – came from the work on our stages. We aim for increasing self-sufficiency but as ever remain grateful for the financial support of Arts Council England and Leicester City Council which together in this year accounted for 23% of our revenue. The remainder is made up from secondary income streams. My thanks to everyone at Curve – the team led by Chris and Nikolai, my fellow Trustees, our funders and supporters but chiefly you – our audience, our paying customers; thank you and I do hope you enjoy the year ahead at Curve.

Ian Squires

Chair, Leicester Theatre Trust

s Curve turns 10 years old, we are delighted to report 2017/18 has been yet another terrific year for our theatre with work both on and off our stages continuing to push boundaries and engage more people than ever before. When we took over this theatre three years ago, we could never have predicted just how many people would be coming directly into contact with our work: Last year over one million people engaged with Curve either through performances, workshops or events in Leicester, or through seeing one of our shows on national and international tour. In the last 12 months we welcomed over 320,000 people to our theatre and sold almost 200,000 tickets for performances across our three theatre spaces. Although attendance is down on the previous year – this is a result of more ‘dark’ weeks for technical rehearsals – our stages played to an average audience capacity of 77% (an 8% increase on 2016/17). We also welcomed many people to Curve for the first time with 36% of bookers being first time attenders. We produced or co-produced nine new productions, revived three existing productions and continued existing tours of a further three shows. The scale of our Made at Curve work has continued to grow in ambition and we have been able to blend new and unfamiliar titles with the well-known and popular – all created by exceptionally talented teams. Across our Made at Curve produced work, we continued to strive for better gender and BAME representation on our stages with 49% female casting and 23% BAME actors across the year. Curve on Tour continued to grow with us touring co-productions of The Graduate, Pink Sari Revolution, Sister Act, George’s Marvellous Medicine, and Fantastic Mr Fox (awarded UK Theatre Award for Best Presentation of Touring) across the UK. In addition, our touring co-production of Sunset Boulevard was awarded Best Regional Production at the Whatsonstage Awards and Best Musical and Best Actor (Danny Mac) at the Manchester Theatre Awards. Our artist development programmes supported emerging and established talent with 1,460 artists taking part in over 500 artist development activities over the year. Through our Breakthrough Programme, 20 emerging artists/companies received year-round mentoring, in-kind support and cash investment to develop new work. In the last 12 months we have also seen significant growth in participants across a range of community activities. We programmed five family days and 125 free activities, performances and exhibitions to ensure finances were not a barrier to accessing our work. Overall, over 20,000 people engaged with our programme of free activities. We also continued to offer a varied programme of weekly low-cost workshops and activities for people of all ages and abilities. During the first 10 years Curve has gone from strength to strength and has delivered some exceptional results. However, we are confident that the best is yet to come. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this extraordinary journey so far.

Chris Stafford Chief Executive

Nikolai Foster Artistic Director

PHOTOGRAPHY George’s Marvellous Medicine – Manuel Harlan • Fantastic Mr Fox – Manuel Harlan • The Graduate – Manuel Harlan • Sunset Boulevard – Manuel Harlan A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Pamela Raith • Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ – Pamela Raith • Oklahoma! – Pamela Raith • Sukanya – Bill Cooper

5 Curve was built for the people of Leicester and Leicestershire and our produced work during 2017/18 cemented our ambition that there is something for everyone to enjoy, with audience figures for our 2017/18 Made at Curve reaching an average of 80% occupancy. We were also able to co-produce two World Premieres – our very first opera – Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya and the stage adaptation of Amana Fontanella-Khan’s Pink Sari Revolution. 1

3 – 9 APR 2017 ROALD DAHL’S FANTASTIC MR FOX

A Curve & Nuffield co-production in association with Lyric Hammersmith Adapted for the stage by Sam Holcroft Director Maria Aberg

2 12 MAY 2017 RAVI SHANKAR’S SUKANYA

A Curve, Royal Opera House & London Philharmonic Orchestra co-production Director Suba Das

3 18 – 20 MAY 2017 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

A Curve & De Montfort University co-production By Anthony Burgess Director Julia Thomas

4 30 MAY – 10 JUN 2017 THE GRADUATE

A Curve & West Yorkshire Playhouse co-production in association with Simon Friend & Gavin Kalin By Terry Johnson Director Lucy Bailey

5 14 JUL – 9 SEP 2017 SUE TOWNSEND’S THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE AGED 13¾ – THE MUSICAL

A Menier Chocolate Factory and Curve Production, in association with Anthony Clare and David Ian Productions. Book & Lyrics Jake Brunger Music & Lyrics Pippa Cleary Director Luke Sheppard

6 10 – 20 AUG 2017 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

A Curve Young Company & Community Production By William Shakespeare Director Nick Winston

7 16 – 30 SEP 2017 SUNSET BOULEVARD

Curve in association with Michael Harrison Entertainment & David Ian Productions Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Book & Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton Director Nikolai Foster

8 27 SEP – 7 OCT 2017 PINK SARI REVOLUTION

A Curve, Belgrade Theatre Coventry & West Yorkshire Playhouse co-production in association with English Touring Theatre, as part of Arts Council England’s Reimagine India fund Based on the book by Amana Fontanella-Khan Adapted for the stage by Purva Naresh Director Suba Das

9 16 – 21 OCT 2017 HAIRSPRAY

A Curve production produced by Mark Goucher Productions Ltd Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan Music by Marc Shaiman Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman Director Paul Kerryson

10 18 – 19 OCT 2017 OKLAHOMA!

A Curve Young Company production Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Director Sarah Ingram

11 18 NOV 2017 – 7 JAN 2018 SCROOGE THE MUSICAL

Curve in association with Michael Harrison Entertainment & David Ian Productions Book, Music & Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse Director Nikolai Foster

12 9 DEC 2017 – 14 JAN 2018 ROALD DAHL’S GEORGE’S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE Pink Sari Revolution – Pamela Raith • Hairspray – Ellie Kurttz A Clockwork Orange – © De Montfort University • Scrooge the Musical – Pamela Raith

A Curve & Rose Theatre Kingston co-production Adaptor David Wood Director Julia Thomas

1 THE SNOW DRAGON Tall Stories, Photo © Tall Stories 2 #JESUIS Aakash Odedra, Photo © Sean Goldthorpe 3 MISS SAIGON Cameron Mackintosh, Photo © Cameron Mackintosh Limited 4 GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS Northern Ballet, Photo © Lauren Godfrey 5 MY COUNTRY National Theatre, Photo © Sarah Lee 6 HEDDA GABLER National Theatre, Photo © Brinkhoff & Möegenburg 7 COAL Gary Clarke Company, Photo © Joe Armitage 8 TRAINSPOTTING LIVE James Seabright, Kings Head Theatre & In Your Face, Photo © Geraint Lewis

Curve’s reputation as a destination theatre for visiting producers has never been stronger with both Miss Saigon and Matilda opening their major national tours at Curve during 2017/18. In addition, our cross art form programming which included drama, dance, comedy, and work for children and young people ensured there was something for everyone to enjoy.

15 14

9 THE RAILWAY CHILDREN Dave Simpson, Photo © Mark Dawson 10 THE SECRET KEEPER Clerkinworks & Ovalhouse, Photo © Clerkinworks 11 THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS Northern Ballet, Photo © Emma Kauldhar 12 MATILDA Royal Shakespeare Company, Photo © Manuel Harlan 13 THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE Frantic Assembly & State Theatre Company South Australia, Photo © Manuel Harlan 14 SHAKESPEARE SCHOOLS FESTIVAL Shakespeare Schools Foundation, Photo © Shakespeare Schools 15 DIGITOPIA Tom Dale Company, Photo © Tom Dale 16 MASS MOVEMENT Dance4,

Photo © Anthony Hopwood

In 2017/18 we continued to fly the flag for Curve and Leicester nationally and internationally, with more Made at Curve co-productions going on tour than ever before. • In total over 700,000 tickets were sold in the UK for our co-productions of Sunset Boulevard, The Graduate, Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox, Pink Sari Revolution, Sukanya, and Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine. • Our work on tour played in 49 cities and nine different countries. • We expanded our international touring programme with our co-productions of Grease, Legally Blonde and Sunset Boulevard visiting Dublin, Dubai, Monaco, Italy and Amsterdam and playing to over 40,000 people. • In partnership with the Menier Chocolate Factory, our new musical Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole – Aged 13 ¾ The Musical played a limited run in London and was nominated for Best New Musical at the Evening Standard Awards. • Our touring co-production of Sunset Boulevard won Best Regional Production at the Whatsonstage Awards and Best Musical and Best Actor (Danny Mac) at the Manchester Theatre Awards. • It was also an award-winning year for our co-production of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox being awarded The Renee Stepham Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre at the UK Theatre Awards.

PHOTOGRAPHY LEFT: Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine – Manuel Harlan RIGHT: (TOP) Legally Blonde – Catherine Ashmore (MIDDLE) Grease – Manuel Harlan (BOTTOM) Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox – Manuel Harlan

PHOTOGRAPHY LEFT TO RIGHT: Pink Sari Revolution – Pamela Raith

Scrooge the Musical – Pamela Raith

Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine – Manuel Harlan

LEFT TO RIGHT: Sunset Boulevard – Manuel Harlan

The Graduate – Manuel Harlan

Sunset Boulevard – Manuel Harlan

We are committed to developing the work of theatre makers, performers, producers, writers, directors and choreographers from across our region and beyond. In the last year, 1,460 artists took part in over 500 artist development activities. • 20 East Midlands artists & companies received year-round mentoring, in-kind support and cash investment to develop new work as part of our breakthrough initiative. • Six local playwrights took part in the second year of our WritersLab programme and in partnership with Graeae we supported five disabled playwrights as part of the Write to Play programme. • 3,000 tickets were sold to our annual Inside Out Festival of new work, which featured five world premieres including work from Debris Stevenson, Rachael Young, Elaine Pantling, Sheep Soup and Si Rawlinson. • 392 artist residency sessions were programmed during the year, including workshops led by Associate Company Bamboozle Theatre Company for young people with special educational needs. • The Curve Cultural Leadership Programme for BAME emerging leaders continued to go from strength-to-strength. Participants engaged with a range of individuals and organisations in the last 12 months including Alex Beard, Baroness Lola Young, Sarah Weir, Farooq Chaudhry, Hull City of Culture, the Barbican and the Royal Court. • The Foyle Foundation, Garfield Weston and The Wolfson Foundation enabled us to redevelop our Rehearsal Room 2 space into a flexible rehearsal and performance space, dedicated to artist development.

PHOTOGRAPHY RIGHT: Rachael Young, Nightclubbing – Marcus Hessenberg

We believe everyone should have access to great art and culture; during 2017/18 over 20,000 people engaged with our programme of free or low cost activities. • 70 local community performers aged between seven and 63 years old took part in a fully produced production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in our 900 seat theatre. • 125 free activities, performances and exhibitions and five low cost family days were programmed across the year, ensuring finances were not a barrier to accessing our work. • In partnership with Curve Affiliate companies Nupur Arts, Sidekick Dance, Kainé Choir, Little Movers, Writing East Midlands and Moving Together, we programmed 247 weekly workshops and classes for people of all ages and abilities. • During the course of the year we made a contribution to the programming of key faith and city festivals including DMU Pride, Black History Month, Everybody’s Reading, Leicester Comedy Festival, Spark and An Indian Summer. • We collaborated with Leicester Hindu Festival Council and Leicester City Council to support the delivery of the Diwali light switch-on stage programme, seen by over 35,000 people. • We delivered a range of projects and activities in our community and in our theatre around our Made at Curve programme, including 29 access performances, 36 free post- show discussions and community projects around Pink Sari Revolution and Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine. • The annual CBEEBIES pantomime was staged at Curve for the first time, providing 3,000 free tickets.

PHOTOGRAPHY LEFT: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Pamela Raith THIS PAGE: (TOP) Diwali Family Day Pamela Raith (MIDDLE) DMU Students Jason Senior (BOTTOM) Family Fun Day Pamela Raith

We are passionate people of all ages and abilities should be able to take part and engage with great theatre. Throughout 2017/18 we delivered over 400 creative learning sessions within our city or county. • Over 480 schools took part in a workshop or attended a performance at Curve with 27 Artsmark schools seeing one of our productions. • 200 young people took part in weekly Curve Young Company workshops and rehearsals led by arts-educators, directors, choreographers and visiting practitioners. • Curve Young Company members performed in a range of performances including a fully realised production of Oklahoma!, participation in NT Connections through the productions of Status Update and The Changing Room, and performing as part of the regional UDance event, Mass Movement. • 400,000 people viewed, shared or engaged with Curve’s digital creative content and our social media followers increased by 18%, rising to 76,000. • We programmed 207 performances for children and young people, selling over 50,000 tickets for work for families. • 5,400 people took part in learning activities around key events including Diwali, Spark and the Summer Reading Challenge. • We worked in partnership with key organisations to increase access to our work and our theatre including Bamboozle, Sidekick Dance, Leicestershire Virtual School, Schools Development Support Agency, FTM Dance, Leicester Assault Referral Centre and United Against Violence and Abuse. • We offered 26 placements and internships across a range of departments in our theatre including communications, producing, technical theatre and learning.

PHOTOGRAPHY CYC 10:10 – Pamela Raith

PHOTOGRAPHY CYC 10:10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pamela Raith

PHOTOGRAPHY Pamela Raith

PHOTOGRAPHY THIS PAGE: Curve 10th Birthday Gala – Pamela Raith RIGHT: DMU & Curve Strategic Partnership signing – Jason Senior

21 Thank you to the following Trusts and Foundations for their generous support throughout the year:

Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation The Foyle Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Headley Trust Heritage Lottery Fund Jerwood Charitable Foundation John Ellerman Foundation The Mackintosh Foundation The Wolfson Foundations The Williams Charitable Trust

The creation of a new Fundraising Department during 2017/18 has enabled Curve to start laying strong foundations for the future. Increasing our fundraising efforts will ensure Curve remains a place where everyone can engage in the arts. We will continue to create outstanding experiences in our theatre, and celebrate the development and work of leading and emerging artists.

We are honoured to work with incredible partners, supporters and funders who help make Curve the place it is today and enable us to provide people of all ages and abilities with access to our work. • Over 3,000 individuals supported our theatre through our membership scheme. • 11 businesses sponsored activities at Curve and 19 local businesses were part of our Business Associate scheme. • Through our strategic partnership with De Montfort University (DMU), we offered student placements, co-produced A Clockwork Orange, hosted a student ‘take over’ for DMU Pride and delivered a module around the business of performing arts for Leicester Castle Business School. • In partnership with the University of Leicester School Of Business, we created and produced enACT – a corporate and higher education training programme aimed at improving communication, presentation and interpersonal skills. • We hosted 39 events across the year including the Arts Council England announcement of the new national portfolio which was live streamed from Curve. • C&IT Awards Winner – Creative Solutions Best Use of Budget Under 100K for Local Offer Live

22 PHOTOGRAPHY Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya – Bill Cooper

1 million

Performance Tickets Sold

197,777

In 2017/18 we engaged over people with activity at Curve and through our produced work on tour

Total Bookers

£1 Public Dress Rehearsal tickets sold 1,350 Over 15,000 £10 tickets sold Our average theatre attendance was 77% and 80% for Made at Curve productions 97% of audiences said that they

39,642

Number of Performances

549

900 Seat Theatre Yield

£29.21

300 Seat Theatre Yield

enjoyed their experience at Curve

Rehearsal Room 2 Yield

41,073 We welcomed nearly over 15,000

Discounted Tickets

Access performances

£12.88 £6.01

89,599

Audience members aged under 26

bookers for the first time

Number of active Members

3,503

AUDIENCE REACH FOR WORK AT CURVE DIGITAL

17% 48% 35%

Beyond the region Leicestershire Leicester

ENGAGEMENT

400,000 people viewed, shared or engaged

with Curveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital creative content

76,000

people following us We have over on either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram

76% of audiences booked their ticket online

2017/18 FINANCIAL SUMMARY 2017/18 turnover exceeded £10.6m; whilst this was down on the previous year our surplus exceeded budget and resulted in a £200k contribution in-line with the 16/17 year-end result. This will all be reinvested in our programme of producing, learning and community initiatives and capital replacement. Earned income through our artistic programme generated £6.8m making up 63% of turnover compared to 66% in the previous year. Commercial operations continued to support the artistic provision by generating a further £1m and Fundraising income increased by 330% to £348k – our best year to date – with thanks to increased support from Trusts and Foundations. Grant income from ACE remained in line with 16/17 whilst our local authority grant was reduced by 10%. The charts below show how far we have come since our first full operating year 09/10 in achieving higher income streams whilst offsetting reductions in grant funding and recognising the need to build reserves.

63%

62%

29%

24% 7%

2009/10

Commercial

2017/18

£6,277,556 Ticket Sales

£10,649,506 Grants

Sponsorship and Fundraising

Ancillary

25 PHOTOGRAPHY THIS PAGE: Scrooge the Musical – Pamela Raith OPPOSITE PAGE: Curve 10th Birthday Gala – Pamela Raith

CURVE APPRECIATES THE ONGOING SUPPORT AS PRINCIPLE FUNDERS OF